Top 10 tapas bars in Madrid

Spain’s capital is awash with tapas bars but how do you find the good ones amid the sea of tourist-traps? Madrid-based food writer
James Blick tracks down 10 of the best, from classic bodegas to slick new dining spaces run by young chefs

Casa Gonzalez

Were Woody Allen to set one of his romantic European whimsies in Madrid, Casa Gonzalez – with its picture-perfect yesteryear facade, smartly tiled interior and moreish hoard of conserves, cheese and charcuterie – would be a shoo-in for the romantic Spanish bar scene. What’s more, the good-humoured and well-moustached owner Paco (whose grandfather founded the place in 1931) keeps a knockout cellar at this wine bar-slash-deli. Nab a table near the big bay window, load it with jamón ibérico de bellota (acorn-fed Iberian ham, €10.10), cured manchego cheese (€6), and a spicy bottle of red and watch the light fade over the cobblestones outside – a most cinematic start to any tapas crawl.•Calle León 12, +34 914 295 618, casagonzalez.es. Open everyday, Mon-Thur 9.30am-midnight, Fri and Sat 9.30am-1am, Sun 11am-6pm

TriCiclo

Baked spring onions in romesco sauce at Triciclo

The buzz from the blogosphere was deafening last year when TriCiclo opened in the capital’s leafy literary quarter. Young chefs Javier Goya, Javier Mayor and David Alfonso were doing something that felt very new in Madrid: serving inspired, internationally-inflected tapas in a pompous-free bar environment. Their seasonal menus include diverse ingredients like cod glands, pig ears, Kaffir lime leaves and kumquats (not in the same dish, thankfully) and most plates are available in small tapa sizes, meaning you can taste a little of everything. Reservations for the white and woody dining room are essential, but – and this is a Madrid truism – there’s always space at the bar.•Calle Santa María, 28, +34 910 244 798, eltriciclo.es. Open Mon-Sat 1.30pm-4pm, 8pm-12.30am

La Venencia

Time grinds to a meditative standstill in this dimmed, tobacco-stained cavern, where the only tipple is dry sherry from a barrel (from €1.70 a glass) and the only tapas are sliced-to-order cured meats, fish and cheese (try the mojama – salt-cured tuna: a mouthful of ocean for €2.30). By day, sherry-soaked locals ruminate over copitas of Amontillado, but at night it regularly ignites into a raucous knees-up (cheap and stronger than wine, sherry creeps up on the unwary). Be on notice that the proprietors run a strict ship: photography is forbidden, as is tipping, and please don’t bother Lola, the slightly senile black cat curled up down the back.•Calle de Echegaray 7, +34 914 297 313, no website. Open daily 12.30pm-3.30pm, 7.30pm onwards

El Tempranillo

Friday night, 10pm – dinnertime in Madrid and the cheek-by-jowl tapas bars along Calle Cava Baja are heaving. Escape the tyranny of choice within the boisterous brick walls of tumbledown El Tempranillo, a culinary rock that does – alongside more elaborate dishes – a top-notch selection of pinchos (slices of baguette topped with everything from foie with roast apple to cuttlefish with caramelised onions, from €2.80-€5.50). “Solo vinos españoles” – only Spanish wines – is scrawled in a defiant hand atop the excellent wine list, and the vino is stockpiled in a gloriously ramshackle wall-to-wall wine rack. There are only a few tables, so go early if you’d like to sit.• Calle Cava Baja 38, +34 913 641 532, no website. Open daily 1pm-4pm, Tues-Sun 8pm-midnight

La Casa del Abuelo

La Casa del Abuelo is still run by the family that founded it in 1906. Photograph: PR

The tangy smack of freshly fried garlic draws you through the door of this striking dark wood and marble tavern, still run by the family that founded it in 1906. The must-try gambas al ajillo (€9.90) is a palate-searing blend of plump Mediterranean prawns, fresh parsley, dried chillies and indecent wads of garlic, whipped-up before your eyes by gabby, old-boy waiters who’ve been doing this dish for decades. Pair it with the house red (a sweet tempranillo that plays perfectly off the garlic) while scanning the photo wall of famous former diners, infamous matadors and the sepia-stained faces of long-gone Abuelo bartenders.•Calle de la Victoria 12, +34 910 000 133, lacasadelabuelo.es. Open daily, Sun-Thur noon-midnight, Fri-Sat noon-1am

Celso y Manolo

Recently opened Celso y Manolo is a lovingly nostalgic nod to Madrid taverns of old, housed in the retro surroundings of a former family-run tasca. The original 1950s marble bar remains, the lights have been dimmed – a moody antidote to this cities’ penchant for bright bars – and the homely menu zeroes in on regional ingredients: grilled organic Cantabrian lamb chops (€8), Catalonian red shrimp (€12.50), or a salad of sweet Huesca tomatoes the size of babies’ heads (€8). Its version of Madrid’s original street food, the much-maligned bocadillo de calamares, is a winner thanks to lashings of lemon-infused alioli (€4.50), and there are some lovely Madrid wines by the glass.•Calle Libertad 1, +34 915 318 079, celsoymanolo.es. Open daily 1pm-5pm, 8pm-midnight

La Castela

On the moneyed east bank of the central Retiro Park, La Castela fiercely guards the traditions of a true Madrid barrio bar: lightening-fast waiters, a generous (and here, elaborate) free tapa with each drink and a loud, loyal local clientele. However it’s the food – simple with a soupçon of sophistication – that makes this unassuming taproom truly sing. Their unctuous rabo de toro (bull tail stew, €12) is tip-top and the blisteringly fresh seafood nesting on ice – fat mussels and candy-sweet razor clams – sublime. So grab a frothy caña (draught beer, €1.50), dive into a bowl of almejas a la manzanilla (clams in sherry sauce, €12) and make like a madrileño.• Calle Doctor Castelo 22, +34 915 740 015, restaurantelacastela.com. Open daily noon-4.30pm, then 7.30pm-12.30am, closed Sun eves